Several media outlets had reported that the Indian Railways plan to cut down employee strength by 3 lakhs, on grounds such as “mental”, “physical” health as well as “cleanliness”
Amid rumours of the Indian Railways cutting jobs on the basis of “under-performance” and more such criteria, the public sector undertaking has clarified on Tuesday that the notice was for “routine” performance review.
The Indian Railways said that the review was laid down by the Railway Establishment Code and was required to be conducted by the administration in the “public interest”.
On July 27 it had sent letters to zonal offices to identify employees above 55 years of age and those who had completed 30 years of service. Speculations were rife that the body wants to cut down its staff to 10 lakh from 13 lakh railway employees by 2020. This amounts to loss of jobs to a sizeable number of railway employees.
This was interpreted differently by media outlets. While the reputed national daily, The Hindu Business Line said, “To remove under performers, Railways asks zonal offices to list employees above 55 years of age”, Zee Business called it a “Railway crackdown”. Zee Business further reported that it had received “some” bad news. And that the national transporter is “stated to be gearing up for a major retrenchment drive.” It added, “Sources have revealed exclusively to Zee Business Online that as many as 3-lakh Indian Railways employees can be retrenched from all the zones.”
Those in the category found ineligible would have been asked to opt for premature retirement, sources had said.
The letter from the Railway board to the zonal offices said, “Zonal Railways are, therefore, requested to furnish the service records of staff in an enclosed proforma, who will be attaining age of 55 years or will be completing 30 years of service qualifying for pension, whichever occurs earlier, in the first quarter of 2020 that is from January to March 2020.”
August 9 has been given as the last date for submission of these details.
The Lok Sabha was recently informedthat the performance of over 1.19 lakh Group-A and Group-B officers across government departments had been reviewed between 2014 and 2019 in relation to a premature retirement clause.
Zonal Railway officers have been asked to access records related to employee mental and physical fitness, attendance and punctuality. It was also queried if the employee is cost conscious, how he deals with correspondence, his discipline and also his “cleanliness”
The clarification statement issued by the Railway says, “Letters have been issued to railway zones/production units merely by way of reiteration to conduct the routine review of performance of the railway employees in pursuance of service conditions”.
The Railways said it had recruited approximately 1,84,262 employees in various categories during the period of 2014-2019. “An exercise for the recruitment of 2,83,637 staffers is underway and examinations have already been conducted for 1,41,060 posts. The process shall be completed within the next two months”, it said.
Earlier, on July 24, news reports surfaced informing that the performance of over 1.19 lakh Group-A and Group-B officers was reviewed by the government between 2014 and 2019.
Minister of State for Personnel and Training Jitendra Singh had said that the government has invoked or recommended premature retirement clause FR 56(j) and similar provisions against 125 Group-A and 187 Group B officers.
He said for the period July 2014-May 2019, a total of 36,756 Group-A and 82,654 Group-B officers have been reviewed under FR 56(j) and similar provisions.
“The provisions of Fundamental Rules (FR) 56(j), Rule 48 of Central Civil Services (CCS) (Pension) Rules, 1972 and Rule 16(3) (Amended) of All India Services (Death cum-Retirement Benefits) [AIS (DCRB)] Rules, 1958 lay down the policy of periodic review and premature retirement of Government servants, which is a continuous process,” he said.
As per these, the government has the absolute right to retire officials prematurely on the ground of lack of integrity or ineffectiveness, in public interest, he said.
It is no secret that unemployment rose to a 45 year high in NDA government’s previous term.
Railways in India hires the highest number of employees in any sector. In February 2018, India’s railway system announced a recruitment drive for the most menial positions in its hierarchy- helper, porter, cleaner, gateman, track maintainer etc. In a press release issued in August, it said that it had received 19 million applicants for 63,000 vacancies.
This kind of a recruitment effort is a potent symbol of India’s unemployment problem. Though the country is “one of the fastest growing major economies” in the world, it isn’t generating enough jobs. By 2021, the number of educated Indians between the age of 15 and 34 is said to reach 480 million. An analysis of government data by Azim Premji University showed that unemployment rose in nearly all Indian states between 2011 and 2016. Jobless rates for young people and those with higher educational qualifications increased during the same period, in some cases sharply: The unemployment rate for college graduates jumped from 4.1 percent to 8.4 percent, according to Santosh Mehrotra, a well-known labour economist.
In this overall bleak scenario, instead of taking steps towards employment generation, this recent move by the central government has generated panic among government employees who have served in a core public sector undertaking for years.